Chicago&#8217;s Premier Sneaker Boutiques Come Together To Form Brotherhood, Kick It Off With City Wide Celebration December 19th.

Chicago, IL--In recent times, street wear and sneaker boutiques have sprung up throughout Chicago. These stores specialize in carrying the latest designs, freshest styles, and the rarest of kicks. In addition, these boutiques serve as community fixtures, offering a space to talk music, sports, and politics. Even as new ones open up, the Chi-town originators of such spots continue to grow and improve, and now come together in hopes of unifying Chicago&#8217;s urban community and maintaining the integrity of a culture rich and diverse. Enter The Brotherhood.

When Leaders 1354, PHLI Worldwide, and Self Conscious teamed up with designer Enstrumental to create shirts donning the message &#8220;We need PHLI Self Conscious Leaders&#8221; it was much deeper than the clothes. The message signified the beginning of their partnership and is at the core of their mission. They intend to unify Chicago&#8217;s disjointed Hip Hop scene, set the bar for future boutiques, and serve as role models for black entrepreneurs everywhere.

PHLI Worldwide&#8217;s Dave Jeff says the partnership was a long time coming. &#8220;We have been talking about this for a long time, and now is the perfect moment for all of us to come together, and remind everyone that we were the first sneaker boutiques in Chicago, and we are still the hottest sneaker boutiques in Chicago,&#8221; he said.

&#8220;Plus we are in the city of haters, and people think we hate each other. That&#8217;s not the case. We all support each other as fellow experts when it comes to the sneakers and street wear, as fellow Chicagoans working to uplift our communities, and we support each other as black businessmen.&#8221;

PHLI, Leaders, and Self Conscious attract those on the cutting edge of fashion and culture. They are a must see for artists and entertainers visiting the Windy City, and some of Hip Hop&#8217;s top stars have sported their brands. While their names have grown nationally, it has been their local loyal customers that have allowed these stores to flourish. In their first event, the Brotherhood says thank you with two celebrations aimed at giving back to those that shaped them.

Mike from Leaders 1354 said, &#8220;There are a lot of people that really held us down over the years. They don&#8217;t even necessarily come into buy something everyday, but just to hang out and let us know that they&#8217;re with us.&#8221; To show their thanks, the Brotherhood has assembled some of Chicago&#8217;s top DJs for a night of partying on Wednesday, December 19th.

The night kicks off at 6PM with an exclusive VIP party held at the Nike office. The party is limited to 150 people, who will be hand selected by each store. Guests will be treated to food and drinks, music and fashion giveaways, as DJs Roosevelt Treasurechest and J-Illa open up their record bags to supply beats throughout the evening.

At 10PM the party will move to Lumen nightclub, located at 839 W. Fulton Mkt. Allstar DJs Million Dollar Mano, TimBuck2, Twilight Tone, and the legendary Terry Hunter will all be on hand delivering the hottest songs, to keep the party moving all night.

This is just the beginning for the Brotherhood. Their common ends with different means, creativity, and Their expertise when it comes to sneakers and street wear will allow the Brotherhood to have a strong impact in Chicago now and in the future.

Cliff from Self Conscious sums it up, "While we do similar things, yet each store has their own identity, which allows us to work in more communities, with more people. We all have a big influence in Chicago's sneaker culture, and together we came up with the Brotherhood to exercise that influence, and use it for the betterment of Chicago."

Where can I find original graffiti art/graffic urban art for purchase in Chicago? Something like this art gallery/sneaker boutique in Houston:I've been to some sneaker stores in Chicago (Leaders 1354, St. Alfreds, etc., but none of them sell any local art of this kind...)

Anyone have any info?

Yo Htown kicks go to Armory Chicago in Albany Park or just callem ask for Reksick or Rico and Im sure he can lead you in the right direction. Hes working with alot of artists in the Chicagoland area and has been doing art shows every now and then so Im sure he can find someone to bust a original piece for you.

Hello, i live in Toronto and im about to reach Chicago for the holidays. Could anybody suggest any spots to pick up some gear? 10 Deep & Crooks especially. Thanks! If i were to wander someplace downtown long enough, would i find a lot of these? Never been to America before, and im really looking forward .

Hello, i live in Toronto and im about to reach Chicago for the holidays. Could anybody suggest any spots to pick up some gear? 10 Deep & Crooks especially. Thanks! If i were to wander someplace downtown long enough, would i find a lot of these? Never been to America before, and im really looking forward .

Thanks!

Hit up the north side wicker park area. There is a store called "leaders 1354" that has the brands ur looking for and more. There is also many other shops in wicker park as well

streetlandheartwear.com launches in june 2008 and will feature everything you need to know about streetwear and sneakers in the midwest :: from a definitive list of retailers and brands, to interviews and customer pictures and reviews, to musicians/recording artists sponsored by the retailers to cool places to get tats, the hottest graphic designers in the region, screen printing companies and more. the streetland heartwear team will be traveling around the midwest documenting the region's hottest spots and events.

The Revive crew from Michigan is just showin some love to all the peeps in Chi-Town. We just launched our online store and we're having our winter sale. We lettin go of our winter clothing for LOW! If you need some gear, come cop it from us!

The Revive crew from Michigan is just showin some love to all the peeps in Chi-Town. We just launched our online store and we're having our winter sale. We lettin go of our winter clothing for LOW! If you need some gear, come cop it from us!

tell jeremy that pun said he is lame,lol jerm is my dude from the forums

I LIVED ON THE EAST COAST MY WHOLE LIFE, AND DIDNT EVER THINK ANYTHING WAS REALLY CRACKIN WEST OF PHILLY.THAT CHANGED AFTER MY FIRST VISIT THERE.CITY IS BEAUTIFUL, PEOPLE ARE THE SHIT, OVER ALL REALLY DOPE PLACE

...Heres some shirts coming out in Spring over at the Armory in Albany Park...for more info hittem up at www.ArmoryChicago.com

Aduse Script. The homie Aduse from Japan hooked it up with a script. He's really known in the circuit out there he does a monthly column in Japan's Lowriding Magazine and also is a reknown tattoo artist out there. Chopper Logo by OG Abel. Available in Black and White. Abel came through and blessed us. Not too many people can tell he did the design cause his style is alot different. Check out his work at www.OgAbel.comHasle Letters. Hasle from TV CREW hooked up these letters a few years back. I was messing with the colors and decided to put it out finally. We been doing real well with the graff shirts so figured I would add another to the mix. Available in 3 colors.Gully 2. We flipped the colors from the original. If you dont know we flipped this design from the San Diego Gulls logo which was our Hockey Team Back in the day. Hockey in San Diego yeah same thing were thinking probably why there not around anymore HAHA...Xact hooked it up and fipped the Warriors logo. We originally put it out Red on Black and Red on White. But here we blew it out made the design bigger and added different colors. Initially this design was Chi Town Bullys. But being we sell all across the world we figured to put the slogan from the old Freestyle Fellowship song Bullies on the bLock. We hip hop so we go with the spelling that looks better. So Bullys it is....Boxhead---StateofMindRadio.com X Armory Collabo Shirt. This was our best seller last season sold out 4 times on Karmaloop.com. Brang it back in a new color.Armory Survival Gear Logo. 3 Colorways to match kicks and whatever else. Also to represent the real...Vicious Beat flip. Pretty much a flip of the Vicious Beat Posse logo. A Rap group out of San Diego who got the first major label deal out of SD. The homies Charlie Rock and Pokey used to dance for them and I believe even tour with them back in the late 80's early 90's. pretty much paying homage to some old school SD peeps...Closer look at the bulldog with the Gucci Link and Armory MedalionBattle Royal color flip. If you havent seen the Battle Royale movie you got to. We basically flipped the logo from the film and added our twist. Also added colors this time.